Projects

Gravity – a love story embeds video recordings from Morag Wightman’s microgravity project Falling without Fear in a production under the forces of gravity, performed by the company Craos Mor of whom she is Artistic Director.

The work was commissioned by The Arts Catalyst for the programme of ‘Artists and Cosmonauts’ events held at the Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler’s Wells London, on 1st March 2002.

Falling without Fear

In October 2001 Morag Wightman took part in the parabolic flight of an IL-76 MDK aircraft departing from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia’s Star City. The flight was organised by Arts Catalyst and Project Atol Flight Operations, Slovenia, for purposes of ‘microgravity interdisciplinary research’ (M.I.R).

During the flight Morag Wightman realised Falling without Fear, a performance spanning 7 flight parabolas creating periods of microgravity, each lasting 25-30 seconds. Zero-G instructor Vladimir Kalentiev contributed to the performance.

Gravity – A Love Story

Gravity – A Love Story is a powerful composition of imagery staged on three projection screens, each of which reveals a different view on the same movement. For her company Craos Mor’s live performance featuring dance and aerial performances, Morag Wightman worked with a script that outlined movements and scenes without stating a detailed choreography. In this way the performance artists had different types of space to inhabit or create individually.

Credits

Artistic director: Morag Wightman

Parabolic flight: Morag Wightman (performer); The Arts Catalyst, Marko Peljhan, Andrey Velikanov, Morag Wightman & Zero-G Team (cameras); Helga Goellner (set and costume design).

3-screen video projection work: Gavin Lockhart (video artist).

Performance at Lilian Baylis Theatre at Sadler’s Wells (25 Mins.): Veronica Forioso, Steven Whinnery & Graham Clint (performers); Little Japanese Toy, Amir Shoat & Iain Ross (soundtracks); Helga Goellner (set and costume design); Will Harding (rigging); Kaja Glenne Lund (lighting design); Niall Black (stage management); Hs Cho (performance recording); John Fisher (editing of performance recording).

Performances

Screening of 3-screen video projection work & performance: 1st March 2002: at ‘Artists & Cosmonauts’, Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler’s Wells

Water movement, film & dance research: 4th July 2003: ‘Altered Gravity’, Chisenhale Dance Space, London

Presentation & screening of 3-screen video projection work: 8th December 2002: “Interdisciplinary Microgravity Movement Research: Experiments on a Zero Gravity Flight”, ArtSci2002, The CUNY Graduate Center, New York